Our invention relates to means to fight fires in an engine compartment of a vehicle and is designed for use in a vehicle having an engine covered with a bonnet or the like, often disposed in the vehicle passenger compartment. The bonnet is opened for engine access and our system is designed to fight a fire in the engine compartment without opening the bonnet.
When the word "vehicle" is used herein it is meant to include air and water vehicles, as well as land vehicles such as motorhomes, vans and trucks. An application to a water vehicle is to a boat having an inboard motor having a hatch type covering for the engine compartment. The hatch is similar to a bonnet in a land vehicle in normally closing the top of the engine compartment and opening for engine access. The hatch may be located inside or outside of the boat cabin.
To set forth the background of the invention, the inventors' motorhome caught fire and caused about $2000.00 damage to the engine. This happened in a residential area and proved to be very difficult to extinguish, in spite of the following circumstances:
1. A man with a garden hose was watering his lawn less than 10 feet from the motorhome and water from the hose was used on the fire.
2. A 5 pound dry chemical fire extinguisher was in the motorhome and was used.
3. An off-duty fireman, living one-half block away, noted the fire and immediately called the local fire department.
4. That fireman drove to the fire bringing his own 5 gallon extinguisher which he used. He also provided fire fighting expertise.
5. A fire truck and three firemen promptly arrived who were then successful in putting out the fire. They donned masks before opening the engine compartment inside of the motorhome.
Because of the foregoing circumstances, including proximity of the fire department, the damage, although considerable, was confined primarily to the engine compartment. If the fire had taken place on the open road, conceivably the entire motorhome would have been destroyed.
The inventors' motorhome has in common with many other motorhomes and vans and with certain trucks and inboard motor boats: (a) difficult access to the engine compartment in time of fire and (b) exposure of the passenger compartment to such a fire. Commonly in such motorhomes and vans, and sometimes in trucks, the engine compartment is located underneath the passenger compartment, sometimes between the front seats of the vehicle. It is covered with a bonnet or cover which is removed or opened to provide basic engine access. If the bonnet is opened to provide access for engine fire fighting, extra oxygen can reach the fire, the fire can spread to the passenger compartment and gaseous products of combustion freely pass into the passenger compartment. It is better not to open the bonnet in case of fire unless there is an experienced fireman available equipped with a mask and a plentiful supply of a fire extinguishing medium, so that the fire can be immediately extinguished and the whole interior of the vehicle won't be engulfed.
Note in such engine installations that the front of the engine compartment usually is substantially covered by a radiator, so that most fire extinguishing medium applied from the front will be blocked by the radiator. The only satisfactory access to such engine compartments for fire fighting is via the bonnet. When the engine cover is opened, the fire will be greatly intensified and the usual fire extinguisher on motorhomes and boats will be inadequate to take care of the intensified fire. Nevertheless, owners will often open the bonnet, although they risk not only loss of the motorhome or boat but also personal physical injury.
The objects of our invention include: to provide a fire extinguishing system adapted to solve the problems described above, to solve the problem of engine inaccessibility, to adapt the system to the use of the same type of dry chemical fire extinguishers required by the laws of most states to be carried on motorhomes and boats but to design the system so that the same fire extinguisher can be used for other than engine fires in or about the vehicle or boat, to design a system operating without risking intensifying of fire and spreading of fire to the passenger compartment due to opening of the bonnet, to provide a system operative without risk of personal physical injury, to provide for maintenance of the system in operative working order and to devise a system in apparatus and operation, economical in cost and adaptable to existing vehicles as well as newly constructed vehicles.